Second 15-Year-Old Dies Mysteriously

Authorities were puzzled by the unexplained death of a 15-year-old girl during the weekend - the second mysterious death of a local 15-year-old in five weeks.

Vanessa Simpson collapsed at her house Saturday night while playing in her yard.

She died at 7:25 a.m. Sunday after doctors spent the night trying to resuscitate her, Columbia Eastern Idaho Medical Center spokeswoman Brenda Baumgartner said.

Neither doctors nor Bonneville County Coroner Vernal Rydalch knows why she died. Rydalch was waiting for a laboratory report early Monday.

Ashlee Dennett, a healthy Bonneville High School sophomore, died in her sleep April 3, also of unexplained causes. Lab tests were inconclusive.

“It’s really unusual to have two 15-year-olds die like this,” Rydalch said.